Object of the Day, Museum Edition: The Tudor Rose Sweetmeat Dish, 1925-6

The Victoria & Albert Museum

This dear sweatmeat dish takes the form of a Tudor Rose--raised and chased, with cast feet.

It was made in London between 1925 and 1926 by Omar Ramsden (born 1873 - died 1939). The reverse is marked OMAR RAMSDEN ME FECIT (OMAR RAMSDEN MADE ME). Ramsden trained at the Sheffield School of Art, and later moved to London where he set up a partnership with Alwyn Carr in 1899. After the First World War, Carr left the partnership and Ramsden worked alone, producing fashionable silver pieces in the Arts and Crafts style.

The Tudor Rose (sometimes called the Union Rose) is a traditional heraldic emblem of England with obvious origins from the Tudor dynasty wherein Henry Tudor (whose symbol was the red rose), upon taking the crown from Richard III and marrying Elizabeth of York, conjoined his symbol with that of his wife (the white rose of York), The Tudor rose is often surmounted by a crown and flanked by the thistles of Scotland or a thistle and clover of Ireland.